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The soaring cost of childcare in the UK is revealed in new figures today, suggesting nurseries will raise fees by £1,000 this year.

A survey of 1,156 providers by the Early Years Alliance found nine out of 10 expect to increase fees, typically in April, and by an average of 8% – higher than in previous years.

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Nursery costs gfx for Tamara Cohen story

UK childcare costs are already among the most expensive in the world, with full-time fees for a child under two at nursery reaching an average £269 a week last year – or just under £14,000 annually.

An 8% rise would take that to more than £15,000.

Nursery costs gfx for Tamara Cohen story

Three and four-year-olds in England attending a nursery or childminder are eligible for either 15 or 30 free hours a week depending on whether their parents work, so their costs are a lot lower.

There are different schemes in Wales and Scotland.

But the concern is that by this stage many parents – particularly mothers – have felt forced to drop out of work or cut their hours.

Tory MPs have been pressing the chancellor to take measures to make childcare more affordable in the March budget in order to reduce pressure on families, and enable more women to re-enter the workforce.

But an option to extend free hours to all two-year-olds is understood to have been ruled out.

Most nurseries and childminders surveyed – 87% – said the money they get from the government does not cover their costs to provide the “free” hours – leaving them out of pocket.

More than half of providers (51%) said they had operated at a loss last year. A handful said they were looking at fee increases of as much as 25%.

Nursery costs gfx for Tamara Cohen story

Becky Burdaky, 26, from Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester, told Sky News she had taken the “daunting” decision to leave her job in sales after having her second child, Bobby, last year.

Her daughter Harriet, aged three, goes to pre-school near their home, but the family found the costs they would face for their baby son beyond their reach.

She will stay at home and they will live on the wages of her partner Steve, an electrician.

‘Not asking other people to pay for my kids’

Becky said: “When we looked into the fees it was £70 a day – it would have been all of my wage. With Harriet it was about £54, so that’s a huge difference.

“And if he was home poorly, I wouldn’t get paid but I’d still have to pay his fee. Once we sat down and worked it out I would have been paying to go to work.

“I never envisaged myself being a stay-at-home mum, you know just cooking and cleaning and bringing up children, as I’ve always worked.

Becky Burdaky
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Becky says she could be starting from the bottom again when she returns to work

“It’s our decision to have children – I’m not asking other people to pay for my children. And I definitely don’t want people’s taxes to go up because of it.

“But I think slightly subsidising the cost of fees so it’s affordable for working parents means we can work and contribute.

“You don’t know what it’s going to be like when you return to work, you’re starting from the bottom.”

The campaign group Pregnant Then Screwed surveyed 27,000 parents last year and found nearly two thirds paid more for childcare than their rent or mortgage.

Although childcare costs have risen significantly in recent years, many providers are struggling to stay in business – with 5,400 closing their doors in the year to August 2022.

Nursery costs gfx for Tamara Cohen story

Fees for the youngest children, aged under three, are often used to keep the nurseries in business, and the rising cost of living means parents are cutting back.

What support is available?

  • Tax free childcare [all ages] for every £8 you pay in, the government put in £2
  • 15 free hours for two-year-olds in England who are disabled or on certain benefits
  • 15 free hours for all three and four-year-olds up to 38 weeks a year [10 in Wales]
  • 30 free hours for three and four-year-olds with working parents for 38 weeks a year in England and Scotland [48 weeks in Wales]
  • Support for those on Universal Credit up to a maximum of £646 per child or £1108 for two

‘I’ve put my savings in to cover wages’

Delia Morris is the owner of Morris Minors pre-school in Croxley Green, Hertfordshire, where children used to start aged two but are now increasingly starting at three.

She is paid £5.41 an hour by the local authority for their free hours, but says providing it costs her around £7.

“Children come in later, when they are funded,” she said.

“That’s had a huge impact. I did raise my fees a very small amount this year but it doesn’t cover it because we only have one or two children doing a couple of sessions a week [that parents pay for].

“I’ve had to put my own savings in to cover the wages last summer, and the staff had to drop a session.”

As to what the government should do, she said: “They have to put money in. It’s difficult to say, but I have to be realistic that if I can’t make ends meet I will have to close and that’s it.”

Delia Morris
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Delia Morris says the government should provide extra funding for childcare

Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said the organisation had closed half of the 132 nurseries it operated in the last four years.

“They are exclusively in areas of deprivation, which seems to fly in the face of any levelling up agenda. These are families and children who would benefit most from support and care,” he said.

According to the OECD, the UK tops the table for the proportion of a mother’s income taken up by childcare costs – based on two children in full-time care.

‘The gender pay gap just explodes’

Christine Farquharson, education economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said childcare costs for two-year-olds have risen twice as fast as inflation in the past decade – with a lasting effect on women’s pay.

“We ended up in a situation where the youngest children have the highest prices they’re ever going to pay, with the least access to government support,” she said.

“And it’s coming at this critical moment where parents are making decisions about whether or not to go back to work after they’ve been on parental leave.

“When mothers – and it is mostly mothers – make that choice to step back from the labour market it’s not just those few years. The gender pay gap just explodes and literally takes decades to come back to anything approaching the situation before they became parents.”

Proposals, championed by Liz Truss, to increase the ratio of children looked after by each adult, have attracted opposition from nurseries and parents.

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But Tory MPs are pressing the government to help parents with the cost of childcare by reducing business rates for nurseries or extending free hours to two-year-olds.

Robin Walker, chair of the education select committee, said some of the existing schemes are not working effectively – such as tax-free childcare – for which uptake is only around 40%.

Universal Credit claimants are also eligible to have up to 85% of their childcare costs funded but are put off by having to make upfront payments.

“There is money there that isn’t being used,” he said. “Upfront payment for Universal Credit and tax-free childcare are putting a lot of parents off using them at all.

“The government is already spending more than any previous government has in this space, but other countries in Europe are spending more particularly in the 0-2 age bracket.

“If we were to make the case for more investment it would unlock those opportunities for people to continue in the workplace and stimulate children in the early years.”

If they win power, Labour have promised an expansion of childcare from the end of maternity leave until the start of primary school.

Shadow education secretary Bridget Philipson told Sky News this would be a “key battleground issue” at the next election.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We recognise that families and early years providers across the country are facing financial pressures and we are currently looking into options to improve the cost, flexibility, and availability of childcare.

“We have spent more than £20bn over the past five years to support families with the cost of childcare and the number of places available in England has remained stable since 2015, with thousands of parents benefitting from this.”

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EY partner in talks to become boss of new football regulator

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EY partner in talks to become boss of new football regulator

An expert in financial regulation at one of the big four accountancy firms is in talks to become the inaugural boss of English football’s powerful new watchdog.

Sky News has learnt that Richard Monks, a partner at EY, is the leading contender to become chief executive of the Independent Football Regulator (IFR).

The new body will be formally established once the Football Governance Bill receives Royal Assent, which is expected this month.

Mr Monks spent 18 years at the Financial Conduct Authority and its predecessor regulator, the Financial Services Authority, before becoming chair of the G20/OECD Taskforce for Consumer Financial Protection, according to his LinkedIn profile.

He became a partner at EY, where he focuses on financial regulation, in the autumn of 2022.

The prospective choice of a chief executive of the IFR with no professional experience of the football industry may spark alarm among club executives who will face an onerous new regulatory regime overseen by the IFR.

In recent weeks, football industry executives have circulated rumours that the IFR boss was likely to emerge from the professional services sector.

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It was unclear this weekend whether other candidates were vying with Mr Monks for the post.

The IFR has already been set up on a ‘shadow’ basis, with Martyn Henderson, former chief executive of the Sports Grounds Safety Authority, appointed in December 2023 as interim chief operating officer of the football watchdog.

The EY partner is understood to have held talks with David Kogan, the government’s preferred choice for the watchdog’s chairmanship but whose formal appointment has been delayed by an investigation sparked by his previous donations to Labour politicians.

William Shawcross, the commissioner for public appointments, is investigating the process through which Mr Kogan was recruited to the role, and is thought likely to produce his report in the coming weeks.

Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, told MPs last month that she was delegating the final decision on Mr Kogan’s appointment to the sports minister.

Stuart Andrew, the shadow culture minister, said at the time: “The public has a right to know whether this was a fair and impartial process, or yet another case of political patronage disguised as due diligence.

“The decision to launch an inquiry is welcome [and] must include scrutiny of [Sir] Keir Starmer, his advisers, and whether any conflicts of interest were properly declared.”

If Mr Kogan’s appointment is ratified, the appointment of a chief executive would be a crucial step in paving the way for the most radical reforms to the supervision of English football in decades.

The legislation includes a new licensing regime for clubs, measures to ensure greater fan engagement and a backstop power allowing the IFR to impose a financial settlement on the Premier League in relation to distributions to English Football League clubs.

Revisions to the Bill have seen a requirement for the IFR to take decisions about club takeovers in the context of the government’s foreign and trade policy removed.

If Mr Monks does land the IFR chief executive’s post, ministers are likely to argue that his expertise as a regulator will balance Mr Kogan’s decades of experience as a negotiator of sports media rights deals.

Last year, Mr Kogan acted as the lead negotiator for the Women’s Super League and Championship on their latest five-year broadcasting deals with Sky – the immediate parent company of Sky News – and the BBC.

His current roles include advising the chief executives of CNN, the American broadcast news network, and The New York Times Company on talks with digital platforms about the growing influence of artificial intelligence on their industries.

The creation of the IFR was pledged by the last Conservative government in the wake of the furore over the failed European Super League project in 2021.

Its establishment comes with the top tier of the professional game gripped by civil war, with Abu Dhabi-owned Manchester City at the centre of a number of legal cases with the Premier League over the club’s financial affairs.

The Premier League has also been keen to agree a long-delayed financial redistribution deal with the EFL before the regulator is formally launched.

Tentative talks between representatives of both factions failed to produce meaningful progress, however.

This weekend, EY declined to comment on Mr Monks’s behalf, while the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has been approached for comment.

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Ofwat could be scrapped in water reforms

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Ofwat could be scrapped in water reforms

An independent review of the water industry is to recommend sweeping changes to the way the sector is managed, including the potential replacement of Ofwat with a strengthened body combining economic and environmental regulation.

Former Bank of England governor Sir Jon Cunliffe will publish the findings of the Independent Water Commission on Monday, with stakeholders across the industry expecting significant changes to regulation to be at its heart.

The existing regulator Ofwat has been under fire from all sides in recent years amid rising public anger at levels of pollution and the financial management of water companies.

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Campaigners and politicians have accused Ofwat of failing to hold water operators to account, while the companies complain that its focus on keeping bills down has prevented appropriate investment in infrastructure.

In an interim report, published in June, Sir Jon identified the presence of multiple regulators with overlapping responsibilities as a key issue facing the industry.

While Ofwat is the economic regulator, the Environment Agency has responsibility for setting pollution standards, alongside the Drinking Water Inspectorate.

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Sir Jon’s final report is expected to include a recommendation that the government consider a new regulator that combines Ofwat’s economic regulatory powers with the water-facing responsibilities currently managed by the EA.

In his interim report, Sir Jon said options for reform ranged from “rationalising” existing regulation to “fundamental, structural options for integrating regulatory remits and functions”.

He is understood to have discussed the implications of fundamental reform with senior figures in industry and government in the last week as he finalised his report.

Environment Secretary Steve Reed is expected to launch a consultation on the proposals following publication of the commission report.

The commission is also expected to recommend a “major shift” in the model of economic regulation, which currently relies on econometric modelling, to a supervisory approach that takes more account of individual company circumstances.

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How water can teach Labour a much-needed lesson


Liz Bates

Liz Bates

Political correspondent

@wizbates

On Monday, the government’s long-awaited review into the UK’s water industry will finally report.

The expectation is that it will recommend sweeping changes – including the abolition of the regulator, Ofwat.

But frustrated customers of the water companies could rightly complain that the process of taking on this failing sector and its regulator has been slow and ineffective.

They may be forgiven for going further and suggesting that how Labour has dealt with water is symbolic of their inability to make an impact across many areas of public life, leaving many of their voters disappointed.

This is an industry that has been visibly and rapidly declining for decades, with the illegal sewage dumping and rotting pipes in stark contrast with the vast salaries and bonuses paid out to their executives.

It doesn’t take a review to see what’s gone wrong. Most informed members of the public could explain what has happened in a matter of minutes.

And yet, despite 14 years in opposition with plenty of time to put together a radical plan, a review is exactly what the government decided on before taking on Ofwat.

Month after month, they were asked if they believed the water industry regulator was fit for purpose despite the obvious disintegration on their watch. Every time the answer was ‘yes’.

As in so many areas of government, Labour, instead of acting, needed someone else to make the decision for them, meaning that it has taken over a year to come to the simple conclusion that the regulator is in fact, not fit for purpose.

As they enter their second year in office, maybe this can provide a lesson they desperately need to learn if they want to turn around their fortunes.

That bold decisions do not require months of review, endless consultations, or outside experts to endlessly analyse the problem.

They just need to get on with it. Voters will thank them.

Sir Jon has said the water industry requires long-term strategic planning and stability in order to make it attractive to “low-risk, low-return investors”.

The water industry has long complained that the current model, in which companies are benchmarked against a notional model operator, and penalised for failing to hit financial and environmental standards, risks a “doom loop”.

Thames Water, currently battling to complete an equity process to avoid falling into special administration, has said the imposition of huge fines for failing to meet pollution standards is one of the reasons it is in financial distress.

Publication of the Independent Commission report comes after the Environment Agency published figures showing that serious pollution incidents increased by 60% in 2024, and as Thames Water imposes a hosepipe ban on 15m customers.

Ofwat, Water UK and the Department for the Environment all declined to comment.

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Post Office Capture IT system conviction referred to Court of Appeal for first time

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Post Office Capture IT system conviction referred to Court of Appeal for first time

The first Post Office Capture conviction is to be sent to the Court of Appeal, Sky News understands, in a “breakthrough” moment in the IT scandal.

The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) has decided to refer the case of sub-postmistress Patricia Owen, who was convicted in 1998 of theft.

Mrs Owen was found guilty by a jury based on evidence from the faulty IT software Capture, which was used in 2,500 branches between 1992 and 1999, before the Horizon Post Office scandal.

Pat Owen and husband David
Screengrabs from Adele Robinson i/vs with case study. Family of Pat Owen from Kent who was convicted of 1998 from stealing from her post office branch. Now the Capture IT system is suspected of adding errors to the accounts. 
Source P 175500FR POST OFFICE CAPTURE CASES ROBINSON 0600 VT V2 JJ1
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Pat Owen, pictured here with her husband David, always maintained her innocence but died in 2003 with a criminal record

Pat Owen always maintained her innocence but died in 2003 with a criminal record before the wider Post Office scandal came to light.

It comes after Sky News revealed that a damning report into Capture, which could help overturn criminal convictions, had been unearthed after nearly 30 years.

The decision to refer the first-ever Capture case to the Court of Appeal has been made on the grounds that Mrs Owen’s prosecution was an “abuse of process”.

The development has been described by victims’ lawyer Neil Hudgell as “hugely pivotal”.

“The Court of Appeal don’t receive that many referrals that start at the CCRC, and most get turned away, so it’s a very high bar to even get cases from the CCRC to the Court of Appeal…”

“I think it will be a real shot in the arm to all the other Capture victims who are waiting for their cases to be determined by the CCRC.”

Mr Hudgell described the report found earlier this year – written by computer experts in 1998 and highly critical of Capture – as “significantly tipping the balance”.

Screengrabs from Adele Robinson i/v with lawyer for victims of the Capture IT system, Neil Hudgell from Hudgell Solicitors
Source P 175500FR POST OFFICE CAPTURE CASES ROBINSON 0600 VT V2 JJ1
Image:
Lawyer Neil Hudgell says development is ‘hugely pivotal’

Sky News found that the Post Office knew about the report at the time and continued to prosecute sub-postmasters based on Capture evidence.

Pat Owen always maintained her innocence but died in 2003 with a criminal record before the wider Post Office scandal came to light.

Her daughter Juliet Shardlow said she cried when she heard the news that her mother’s case would be referred to the Court of Appeal.

“I feel angry that she is not here because she died before her time… we will be there – we will be sitting there in that front row.

“I can’t put it into words because it’s still all a shock that we are where we are and that later this year, or next year, we might have what we set out to get… justice for her.”

Juliet Shardlow whose mother sub-postmistress Patricia Owen who was convicted in 1998 of theft
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Juliet Shardlow is seeking justice for her mother

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The CCRC is currently investigating 30 cases potentially related to the Capture software system.

Twenty-seven of those cases are now assigned to case review managers and under “active review”, with a further three cases in the preparatory stages.

The CCRC has described a “challenge” over determining “whether cases involved the use of Capture at the time of the alleged offences”.

In a letter written to Liam Byrne, chair of the Business and Trade Committee, and seen by Sky News, it said that information the Post Office has provided “does not, in most cases, show whether it was installed and in operation at the time of the alleged offending”.

It also mentioned that the Post Office is reviewing “a significant amount of data which may contain further information”.

A Post Office spokesperson said: “While it is not appropriate for us to comment on specific cases, we have been very concerned about the reported problems relating to the use of the Capture software, and we are sincerely sorry for past failings that have caused suffering to postmasters.

“We are determined that past wrongs are put right and continue to support the government’s work in this area as well as fully co-operate with the Criminal Cases Review Commission.”

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